HK-listed Minmetals Resources Limited announced Monday that it would make an all-cash takeover offer for Equinox Minerals Limited worth C$6.3 billion ($6.51 billion) – the latest move in a recent spate of acquisitions by Chinese mining companies.

Equinox, a company listed both in Canada and Australia, runs a gold and copper mining and exploration business mainly in Zambia and Saudi Arabia. Equinox produced 146,690 tons of copper last year, an increase of 34 percent over 2009. Its gross sales last year went up to over C$1 billion ($1.03 billion), almost double the C$532 million ($549.73 million) the company reported in 2009.

Minmetals said the offer of C$7 ($7.23) per share for Equinox represented a 23 percent "substantial premium" to the closing price of Equinox shares in Toronto of C$5.71 ($5.90) on April 1, the last day prior to the announcement.

Andrew Michelmore, CEO of Minmetals, said the offer aligns with the company's growth strategy.

"For Equinox shareholders, the offer is compelling in that it not only provides a substantial premium and certainty of value, but it also provides a superior alternative to the proposed acquisition by Equinox of Lundin," Michelmore said, adding that Equinox shareholders should reject the Lundin bid at the shareholders' meeting on April 11.

Equinox was due to hold a meeting to consider acquiring Lundin Mining Corporation at the price of C$4.8 billion ($4.96 billion). The company later on Monday announced that it had rescheduled the meeting to April 26.

Minmetals is a unit of China Minmetals Corporation, a State-owned metals and minerals trading company, which posted revenue of 255 billion yuan ($38.98 billion) in 2010.

The president of the corporation, Zhou Zhongshu, said he regarded this transaction as an important next step in Minmetals Resources' transformation into a leading upstream base metals company.